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Is My System Toast?

The electricity in my town went out the other day for a short time. My wife was in the living room where my stereo system is. The amp is a Bel Canto eVO2i and a pair of Quad 12L2 speakers. She told me that when the power came back on that the left speaker crackled and smoked a little. When I looked, it had a constant low but discernible hum. I tried the speakers and they were dead. I switched the amp input to my CD player (which had been completely powered down) and there was no sound. Are the speakers and amp pretty much gone? Is it worth having the amp looked at for possible repair?

masswineguy
deep_333
2,479 posts
 

When you plug things directly into the wall in hot pursuit of...."dynamics" n all... you may end up with no gear left, no music...

Try to plug things into a good power conditioner w/protection features enabled.

 

audphile1's avatar
audphile1
8,159 posts
 

Sounds like you had a decent power surge.
 

These speakers aren’t worth much. If one of the speakers smoked that means the amp sent a good amount of current to the speakers and the voice coils as well as other parts such as crossover are fried.

The amp may still be ok if it turns on but you would need to check it with some other set of speakers. If it doesn’t turn on, check the fuse. 

buellrider97's avatar
buellrider97
1,005 posts
 

FWIT I live in central California. We suffer under PG&E as our only provider. However when power is the culprit, they can be liable for damage. My internal motor control on my air unit was damaged by low voltage and I was able to file a claim. I’m pretty ignorant of other parts of the US, but I see many areas suffer from lightning strikes and power surges. FWIT when I’m gone my rig is powered off and unplugged for vacation. If there is an outage while I’m home I pull the plug(s) on my gear and turn my air units to OFF as I had one blow when the power came on after being off for a day. Sorry for your experience, Mike B. 

rick_n's avatar
rick_n
488 posts
 

So sorry to hear about your misfortune.  angry Hope you can find a fix. 

easystreamer
127 posts
 

Does the amp still power on? It sounds like it does if you can switch the input to CD. You need another pair of speakers to confirm if both channels are still working. Replace the fuse, if it does work, just for the peace of mind of having a newer fuse.

If it is confirmed the amp is dead, what a great opportunity to upgrade, and nobody can tell you "no" :)

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